From the Chinese is borrowed Ke Gian, which is mostly used to depict anal intercourse, being thus is not limited to same-sex practice ("Vinh N." 1999). It is urban in origin and can be dated to the French usage of the word. Pe De, for the French pederaste, is probably the most common byword for a gay person in Vietnam. Another variation on this term, which is more common in the biological and medical vocabulary, is Ban Nam Ban Nu. It did not come into use before the 1940s. Ai Nam Ai Nu is the closest descriptive approximation to what is meant ontologically and behaviorally by the Western term homosexuality, though, if one takes Ai as a verb, the term comes closer to "bisexual" behavior.
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The concept of homosexuality only came into greater use with the introduction of Western psychology and sexology in so-called hygiene manuals in the 1950s and 1960s. It did not appear in Dao Duy Anh’s Han Viet Tu Dien of 1931, but it did appear in his Phap Viet Tu Dien of 1936, and might have had limited currency in the journalistic vocabulary of the 1930s. Its entry date into the Vietnamese language is not very clear. The Vietnamese use more than one expression for the Western neologism homosexuality, although all have the same underlying meaning of "half man and half woman." For example, Dong Tinh Luyen Ai is a literal translation via Chinese of "homosexuality," which dates back to 1869. It may well be that the Communist state is reluctant to recognize its existence. In fact, homosexuality is quite a common sexual behavior. In present-day Vietnam, homosexuality is still regarded as being a foreign problem, and, as in other socialist countries, there is a lack of official research on homosexual behavior. Department of State 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Report,Īccording to the Encyclopedia of Sexuality: In Vietnam, there has historically been relatively little male homosexuality, although a few of the emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did maintain male concubines.
[Source: 2011 Human Rights Reports: Vietnam, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,U.S. Most LGBT persons chose not to tell family of their sexual orientation for fear of being disowned, and a 2011 online survey, conducted by the Information Sharing and Connecting Group with more than one thousand LGBT respondents, noted that more than 20 percent were forced into counseling by their families. The institute also reported that government officials, the Women’s Union, and the Lawyers Association participated in sensitivity training during the year. A 2009 survey of more than 3,200 LGBT individuals by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy, and the Environment reported that 4.5 percent claimed they were victims of assault or physical abuse by homophobic individuals and 6.5 percent claimed they lost jobs because of their sexual orientation. A lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community existed but was largely underground. There was no reported official discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but societal discrimination and stigma were pervasive. Department of State: Consensual same-sex sexual activity is not criminalized, although by decree, individuals may not change their gender.
There are no laws or regulations on homosexuality or homosexuals in Vietnam, and no mention of gays as a risk group for HIV and AIDS.Īccording to the U.S. Even so historically it has been tolerated. It is also ranked as a "social evil" along with prostitution and drug abuse. Homosexuality is regarded as a disease in Vietnam.